Federal Judge To Trump: Restart DACA

Immigration continues to be a thorn in the side of the Trump administration and the Republican Party. A federal judge has ruled that the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program must be restarted. It’s not an immediate order; the Trump White House still has until August 23 to appeal the decision (via Politico):

A D.C.-based federal judge on Friday ordered the Trump administration to restart in full the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

The decision is the latest legal blow against President Donald Trump’s decision to phase out the Obama-era program, which offers deportation relief to undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children.

The restart won’t be immediate. U.S. District Judge John Bates said Friday that the order would be delayed until Aug. 23 to allow the government to appeal, but he denied a Justice Department motion to reconsider his earlier decision, saying there were still deficiencies in the administration's rationale for rescinding DACA.

“The court has already once given DHS the opportunity to remedy these deficiencies — either by providing a coherent explanation of its legal opinion or by reissuing its decision for bona fide policy reasons that would preclude judicial review,” said Bates, “So it will not do so again.”

Bates in April became the third federal judge to order the administration to restart renewals for people previously approved for DACA.

DACA is controversial. It’s a constitutionally questionable executive order from the Obama era, which many have argued is a violation of separation of powers. It grants illegals protections from deportation provided they meet a certain criteria. It’s renewed every two years and 800,000 illegals benefit from the program. They’re asked to give sensitive information, including where they live and admit that they’re in the U.S. illegally when applying, which is why many are on edge as the Trump administration decided to wind down the program last September. It had a six-month enforcement delay to afford Congress time to pass a DACA fix, but Democrats weren’t playing ball. They shut down the government, but backed off when public opinion began to swing against them. Shutting down the government for illegal aliens is not a winning message. Yet, DACA was still unfixed, with Democrats obstructing and Republicans splintering on the issue. With this ruling, expect moderates Republicans to push for more votes on immigration and divide the GOP even further heading into a critical midterm election year. Pass the Advil, folks.